[Hackage] #289: symlink binaries into ~/bin

[Hackage]

#289: symlink binaries into ~/bin
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  Reporter:  duncan              |        Owner:                     
      Type:  enhancement         |       Status:  new                
  Priority:  normal              |    Milestone:  Cabal-1.4          
 Component:  cabal-install tool  |      Version:                     
  Severity:  normal              |   Resolution:                     
  Keywords:                      |   Difficulty:  very easy (<1 hour)
Ghcversion:  6.8.2               |     Platform:                     
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Comment (by Isaac Dupree):

 Replying to [ticket:289 duncan]:
 > Currently cabal-install uses `--prefix=$HOME/.cabal` and does not
 specify `--bindir` so we use `$HOME/.cabal/bin` as the bindir. Obviously
 this is not on the `$PATH` by default.

 of course, neither is any other dir in `$HOME` in `PATH` by default, I
 just add `$HOME/.cabal/bin` to my `PATH` :-)  ...in addition to using GNU
 Stow elsewhere to keep track of my non-Cabal stuff.

 > If the name does exist we could give a warning and let the user sort it
 out.

 okay, by telling them (if they want it) what symlink to make? or having a
 cabal "update-bin-symlinks" maybe?

 > Of course we need to be able to overwrite our own symlinks. We know it's
 a symlink we're allowed to overwrite if it links into `$HOME/.cabal/bin`.

 yep, that's the same heuristic that Stow uses -- pretty good.  Hmm.. watch
 out, for people who use Stow itself, Stow might leave `bin` dir being a
 ("folded") symlink to somewhere you don't want to install to, such as
 `$HOME/stow/darcs-2.0.2/bin` ;-)

 > It would be nice to install into `$HOME/.cabal/bin` using versioned
 binary names (Cabal supports that now)

 true!

 > and symlink the generic name into `$HOME/bin`.

 I want the generic names somewhere well-defined under `$HOME/.cabal` too.
 And the versioned names should also be symlinked.

 > and there are no symlinks on windows.

 :-( With greater hacks, we could generate wrapper binaries/scripts on
 Windows that just load the thing in `$HOME/.cabal/bin`, I suppose -- but
 maybe Windows users are used to the lack of symlinks?

 > I'd imagine we'd have it in the `~/.cabal/config` file something like:
 > {{{
 > prefix: $HOME/.cabal
 > -- bindir: $HOME/.cabal/bin
 > symlink-bindir: $HOME/bin
 > }}}

 I guess defaulting to `$HOME/bin` "if it exists as a non-symlink
 directory" would be a heuristic that's not too unreasonable if you want a
 silent default.  (silence is what makes people like me not know about the
 existence of `$HOME/.cabal/bin` until we find out about it, too!)  (Which
 reminds me, yet another reason not to put anything of my own making under
 `$HOME`, because programs might automatically trample it for their own
 heuristic purposes, thinking they know what's best for me and doing it
 behind my back without my permission -- I keep my $HOME in /Users/me/HOME,
 which might be called /home/isaac/HOME under more-normal circumstances)

 -Isaac

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/hackage/ticket/289#comment:3>
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Hackage: Cabal and related projects